South German Confederation
As a South German Confederation (also Southern Confederation ) was from 1866 to 1869 refers to the idea that the southern German states of Bavaria , Württemberg , Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt a confederation reasons. Article 4 of the Peace of Prague after the German War of 1866 spoke of this possibility (literally: "to come together in an association"). However, due to disagreement among themselves, the southern German states concerned did not make use of it.
In the north, the Kingdom of Prussia formed the North German Confederation as the new German federal state. The North German Confederation or Prussia concluded individual defense treaties with the southern states, the protection and defiance alliances . In 1870/1871, after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War , the North German Confederation took up the southern states and transformed itself into the German Empire .
prehistory
Already at the time of the Erfurt Union in 1849/1850 it looked as if Prussia could unite northern Germany at best. The great kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg, but also Saxony, which after 1866 had to join the North German Confederation as a result of the defeat on Austria's side, vehemently rejected the attempt at unification under Prussian leadership. However, the “ Third Germany ” did not succeed in driving an independent line between Austria and Prussia in the following twenty years . Bavaria saw itself in a leadership role that was not recognized by the other medium-sized and small states.
As early as 1850 France was opposed to Prussia spreading its power south of the river Main. Instead, the French Emperor Napoleon III tried . in the 1860s to annex western German territories, for example on the occasion of a secret treaty with Austria in June 1866 . If Bismarck founded the future federal state only with the northern German states, that calmed France as well as Austria.
On July 14, 1866, Prussia and France agreed that Prussia could establish a federal state in the north. The southern German states should be allowed to unite to form a southern alliance that should be internationally independent. The Northern State and the Southern Confederation were allowed to freely regulate their relationship to one another. From the French point of view, the foreseeable coexistence of the Northern State, Southern Confederation and Austria would not have disrupted the European balance. The southern alliance was only mentioned in the Peace of Prague on August 23 and not yet in the Nikolsburg preliminary peace of July 26, 1866, despite the otherwise identical statements.
Location in southern Germany
In the largest of the four states, Bavaria, Prime Minister Hohenlohe was in favor of annexation to Prussia, while the King was against. Baden also sought to join the new (north German) federation. However, the Peace of Prague forbade Prussia to accept southern German states into its new league. The location of Hessen-Darmstadt was special, as only one of its three provinces (Upper Hesse) became a member of the North German Confederation.
In a ministerial declaration of May 6, 1867, Bavaria and Württemberg advocated that the southern German states should be associated with the North German Confederation through a confederation of states. This confederation was intended as a copy of the German Confederation. Prussia rejected such a construction. Hohenlohe, on the other hand, on October 8, 1867, rejected Bavaria's accession to the North German Confederation, as well as a final southern German federal state or a "constitutional alliance of the southern German states under the leadership of Austria". Rather, the southern German states should individually “come into closer contact” with northern Germany.
Prussia wanted German unification, but did not dare to break openly the Peace of Prague. Baden, Württemberg and Hessen-Darmstadt preferred to come to terms with Prussia directly and not become dependent on Bavaria. On November 23, 1867, Hohenlohe proposed a confederation, the United South German States , including a draft constitution. On Prussia's advice, Baden treated the Bavarian proposals with delay and brought them to a standstill in 1868.
On the occasion of the peace treaty with Prussia in 1866, the southern German states had already (initially) signed secret military alliances with Prussia, since the dissolution of the German Confederation no longer gave a military guarantee and would therefore have been defenseless against an attack by France. They also unified their military constitutions to a certain extent among themselves.
See also
supporting documents
- ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1963, p. 570.
- ^ Michael Kotulla: German constitutional history. From the Old Reich to Weimar (1495–1934) . Springer, Berlin 2008, p. 489.
- ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1963, p. 681; Michael Kotulla: German constitutional history. From the Old Reich to Weimar (1495–1934). Springer, Berlin 2008, p. 489/490, however, does not see this ban on membership: the southern German states could not be bound by an Austro-Prussian agreement (the Peace of Prague) on this issue.
- ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1963, pp. 682/683.
- ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1963, pp. 684/685.
- ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1963, pp. 597/598.